The trouble with math is
by TormintedKreyez
Summary: Jessica is failing math and Charlie becomes her tutor.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs and all of its contents do not belong to me. **

- "Ugh! I hate this crap!" Jessica said with frustration while doing math homework. Math always seemed to be her weakest subject. In everything else she made A's, but in math she made F's. This year in Algebra II, she was on the borderline of failing.

She called a friend in hopes of figuring out how to solve the equation. Nikki answered the phone and Jessica asked her to explain the homework.

"So how do you know what to multiply by?' Jessica asked. She wasn't sure how to get rid of the radical in the denominator.

"I think you multiply by the square root of 4," Nikki answered. It was obvious that neither of the two knew what to do.

"So how come you don't know what to do either, but you always seem to pass the tests?" Jessica asked in annoyance.

"I don't know, I never understand this but I must get lucky when it comes to taking the tests," she answered.

The phone call ended and Jessica's homework left unworked. Sure she would get after school detention for not doing it, but it was surely impossible for her to complete. But Jessica did not get detention; she got something far worse.

"Clear your desks except for your calculator and a pencil," Mr. Korben announced the next day at school. The students moaned as he announced a pop quiz. Jessica looked at the quiz in dismay; everything on it seemed like a foreign language to her. There was nothing on the quiz that she knew how to do.

A minute after the pop quiz was issued, Jessica got up and turned it in. Mr. Korben looked at her blank paper and shook hi head.All the other students were working the problems, using their calculators, understanding what was going on.

A lone tear fell down Jessica's cheek as hopes of going to London University was dissolving. The collegs would see the failing math scores and instantly throw away her resume, regardless of all the perfect grades in other classes.

"Man that math test was easy!" Micheal told Nikki. It was lunchtime and everyone was talking about the pop quiz.

"How did you do?" Nikki asked Jessica.

"That was the fastest I've ever completed a math test," she said. The others gave an impressed look to her lie. Inside, Jessica was ready to die. Mike and Nikki spent the whole lunch period talking about math terms and Jessica was left there all alone in thought. Misery swooped in on her the more she thought about the subject.

"I need a tutor or something," she thought to herself.

"Jessica, I need to speak with you," a voice came suddenly. Jessica looked up to see Vice principal Kalure. She got up and followed him to the office. Paranoia rushed in and Jessica thought of all possible reasons why she was being called to the office.

"I didn't do anything? Did I?" she wondered.

Once inside the office Mr. Kalure got to the point, " I hear you are failing math."

Jessica bit her lip and braced herself for what she thought would be a long conversation filled with yelling.

"Have you tried getting a tutor?" He asked her. Jessica shook her head. Words abandoned her and there were none left to even answer him with.

"Ok well then we will get you a tutor. I think I have the right person for the job too," the vice principal said. "When are you free?"

Jessica was forced to speak but still used the least amount of words possible, " Whenever."

"Ok well then how about we start this afternoon. Since you are always free, you can go to tutoring everyday of the week." He answered her.

The conversation was through and Jessica left the office. Her hands were clammy and her face warm with embarrassment.

"That wasn't that bad," she thought. The poor girl had expected the vice principal to jump down her throat. Jessica was top student in her grade, minus math. All the teachers constantly nagged her about the math scores, but she tried and tried and accomplished nothing.

She thought back to the new tutor. Hehad a weird name...Charlie Eppes. That would be a name Jessica would never be able to forget.


End file.
